Expiration Dates?

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Has anyone else been noticing a shorter shelf life for food lately? I don't mean, for instance, organic with fewer preservatives. I mean stores are stocking food that expires more quickly than it used to.

When I started buying Trader Joe's flatbread, I had a good 7-8 days to use it. For the last several weeks it's been hard to find one that doesn't expire in 3 or 4 days. When we miss the market I often buy fruit at TJs, but all of the berries in the middle of the pack are already moldy the day I buy them.

Tom just went to Ralph's and found that all containers of my favorite sour cream was already expired. Fresh salsa from there is hardly good for a week now.

Are people buying fewer groceries in the budget crunch, and thusly they're trying to sell the older ones first? Is it the summer heat? I'm not sure what's going on, but it's getting harder to be value-minded and to avoid wasting all of what I'm buying.

[katiesue]

I've noticed shoter pull dates on some things as well lately. I'd guess that people are just buying less - so it's sitting on the shelf longer.

[Moonliner]

Oh oh!

.....


Whew! My stock of twinkies is still good. That was a close one...

[Disneyphile]

Us too - we seem to not find food dated up past a few days anymore.

People are buying less, and/or buying cheaper processed items instead, I bet.

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by katiesue

I've noticed shoter pull dates on some things as well lately. I'd guess that people are just buying less - so it's sitting on the shelf longer.

It's also possible they are consolidating deliveries to save gas and fresh stock is not being delivered as often.

[Ghoulish Delight]

It could simply be a change in the FDA regulations for what can be printed as the shelf life.

Other than perhaps milk/cream (perhaps), I don't pay a whole lot of attention to expiration dates. And even for the few things I do pay attention to, I only do so in a relative sense (i.e., this carton of whipping cream is 2 days newer than this carton) rather than caring how far out the particular date is. Expiration dates are 1) approximations and 2) more often "sell by" dates than expiration meant to provide a borderline that gives as close to 0% chance that any individual product hasn't gone bad yet. That doesn't mean (and I know you know this) that those things go bad at midnight of the day printed on the container. It just means that after that date there is no longer a 0% chance of age-related spoilage. What that non-zero chance is depends on how it's stored (or fridge, for instance, is downright magical and keeps eggs for literally a couple months just fine)

Have you been noticing things actually going bad faster, or have you just been assuming so based on the dates?

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Oh, I look at the dates, but there's no doubt that it definitely goes bad faster, too. For instance, I used to be able to buy sour cream that would be useful for about three weeks. Now it gets full-scale fuzzy by the second week. Fresh salsa starts to turn black within a week.

It's not our fridge. We buy a lot of stuff straight from the farmers, and that lasts perfectly well.

It isn't a change in my buying habits, either - I've been buying mostly natural, less-processed stuff for a long time, and I've been buying (nearly) the exact same groceries every week for almost four months now.

[BarTopDancer]

I honestly haven't noticed. I buy Horizon Organic milk, and when I bought it in June I noticed it expired after Disneyland's birthday.

I look at the dates as sell by dates, not expiration dates too.

H, maybe it's the brand? What brand are you buying?

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Different brands in different stores.

For instance, for sour cream, I've noticed the problem in Knudson's, Trader Joe's, Ralph's, and Horizon Organic. Those came from Ralph's, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods.

[blueerica]

Funny this should come up, as I was thinking the very same thing! It's gotten to the point where I've had to change my shopping habits, and end up tossing things I swore used to last longer. I've been helping myself with smaller quantities from the local fruit/veggie stand, but there are some things I just can't seem to get away from the expiry on.

I should look up whether the FDA has made a change (shouldn't be hard to find) - though I'm inclined to believe people are buying less, thus, stuff is "on the shelf" or at least back at the warehouse longer